​I run a one-person bicycle repair business out of my workshop in O’Connor, located close to the Bruce Ridge mountain bike trails. I have always been obsessed with 2 wheeled machines. In my earlier years this obsession was dominated by sports motorcycles with a bicycle or two on the side. When my twin girls were born the potentially life limiting and environmentally damaging motorcycle was replaced with a dual suspension mountain bike after realising that it is possible to replace the awesomeness of a high-powered motorcycle with the goodness of a mountain bike. I now own a number of mountain, road, gravel, electric and touring bikes.

I have always been interested in things mechanical and have always serviced and repaired my own pushbikes and in the past, motorcycles. I studied mechanical engineering at university and TAFE and worked for a time in an engineering workshop. A second stint at university studying Physics and Geology led to a 20 year career as a geophysicist at Geoscience Australia and 20 years of bicycle commuting. More recently we knocked down our small termite-infested weatherboard house and built an energy efficient hebel house with a lovely 2 car garage - the current Ridgeworks workshop. To reduce costs I became an owner builder and with Linda, my lovely wife, built the house during a grueling three years on weekends and around part-time office work. Little did Linda know that no car would ever enter the garage as my building experience led me to the realisation that I prefer working with my hands rather than being stuck behind a computer dealing with data. This led to a mid-life career change to chief mechanic and owner of Ridgeworks Bicycle Repairs. 

Bikes and their riders transcend a large range of uses and motivations. This range is reflected in the bikes that I own and ride. My bikes and service regimes are diverse: a high-end carbon fiber-framed dual-suspension mountain bike which I have used to race in local events and which receives high-end replacement components; a slightly overweight steel-framed road-bike and a steel framed off-road tourer which both receive mid-level replacement components; and my "pub" bike which was built up from a hodge-podge of mostly used parts. The amount of money I have spent on these bikes ranges considerably. For example, the cost of a replacement cassette for the mountain bike is about what I have spent all up on the pub bike. What I am trying to say is that I understand that customers have different needs and wants for a bike and how much they are prepared to pay for servicing and spare parts. As such, I stock a range of componentry from more expensive high-end components through to more affordable components as well as a range of used component that still have a lot of life left in them and which I am more than happy to pass on for a token amount. One of the reasons I love bikes is due to their low impact on the environment and anytime I can re-use a component just adds to their low impact. But don't get me wrong... a shiny new super-light carbon-fiber titanium composite component is a thing of engineering beauty and if this component can help you get up that mountain or to the finish line first, then nothing will make me happier than to install this component onto your bike.